620
I
will
send a copy of my novel
PORTRAIT
OF A
SEAMAN
free to anyone
J.
INCHARDI
P.O. Box 2032
G.P.O.
New York I, N. Y.
I
will
send a copy of my novel
LETTERS
TO A
WATERFRONT
PRIEST
free to anyone
~
J.
INCHARDI
P.O. Box 2032
G.P.O.
New York
I,
N. Y.
CHESTER
felt his lust too long bottled up,
squashed down, trod upon. And
the lust, when it comes out, comes
out as an explosion. Lawrence al–
ways explodes into flames, Joyce
sometimes into diamonds, usually
into tedium. But no matter what
the nature of their explosions, both
these men are Europeans and
therefore less subject to spasms of
self-consciousness, to the sudden
American embarrassments and dis–
beliefs. Joyce may doubt his dia–
monds, but he never doubts his
tedium, and so on goes the pon–
derous aesthetic determination,
pushing the explosion right to the
end of each work. From A to Z.
He gets there. He gets to his icy
castle of jewels. Lawrence, of
course, never doubts his flames; he
gives himself up to them like a
woman, and they respond grate–
fully by never burning out and by
putting him into touch with the
godhead. The explosion sustains it–
self and him from start to finish.
(I am not necessarily going along
here with the popular belief that
Lawrence is altogether at the
mercy of his flames, choiceless. It
is true he gives himself up to the
flames like a woman, but like a
woman he is usually facing the
facts about his passion and so he
does not lose control. He knows
he is in love with a selfish half–
wit, and while he is lying there
panting spreadeagled with the holy
fire panting over him, he is all the
time worrying: "Will the wretch
